Paul Bradford (Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to raise this important issue in the House but I must express my disappointment at the failure of the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, or the Minister of State at the Department, who is a public representative for the area, to come to the House. The closure of IFI is a devastating blow to the region and while political football will not solve the problem, I would have at least expected the Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment to be present to respond. However, I appreciate that the Minister of State, Deputy Callely, is present and I await his comments with interest.

The community was in a state of shock at the announcement of the proposed closure of IFI. It is a devastating blow to Cork, the area I represent, to the Arklow region and to the community in Northern Ireland, where there is also an IFI plant. However, we recognised that there were problems and that negotiations had been underway for some time to try to bring about an improvement in the situation.

The Tánaiste met with workers' representatives on 12 September and I think she may be meeting them again at some stage today. A strong indication was given on 12 September that time would be allowed to bring about a framework under which the cost base would be reduced at IFI. We must recognise that there was a difficulty with costs but the unions and the worker representatives were working to ensure that costs would be reduced. The announcement of the factory closures therefore came as a terrible blow.

Shedding crocodile tears will not reverse this decision and it would not be any great help to anybody, so we must address the question of what to do next. The Tánaiste indicated that there is a possibility of a task force, which happened previously in a number of areas where major job losses occurred. In the Cork region, and east Cork in particular, there have been huge job losses over the past number of years. A long list of traditional industry has closed down, going back to the times of Ford, Dunlop, Irish Steel and its successor, Ispat, and now including IFI.